Rights of Adolescent Girls in India: A critical Look at Laws and Policies by Saumya Uma is timely publication about the most neglected segment of our society namely adolescent girls. Perceived as burden by their parents, neglected by policy makers, subordinated by patriarchal system, crushed before they bloom due to omnipresent misogyny; adolescent girls in India have to tread tight rope walk.

The author rightly avers that in India experiences of adolescence for girls are greatly different from that for boys. For boys, adolescence is marked by greater autonomy in decision making about career, financial independence, enhanced status and expanded participation in family, community and public life.

While for girls it is always differential treatment as compared to their male counterparts. Dr. Amartya Sen has highlighted seven types of inequalities that women and girls have to face throughout their life cycle-from womb to tomb. He states, “Burden of hardship falls disproportionately on women” due to seven types of inequality- mortality (due to gender bias in health care and nutrition), natality (sex selective abortion and female infanticide), basic facility (education and skill development), special opportunity (higher education and professional training), employment (promotion) and ownership (home, land and property) and household (division of labour). [1]

Chapter 1 defines the analytical perspective informed by ‘theory of social exclusion’ of the book that discusses six crucial issues pertaining to adolescent girls’ rights: health, education, right to and rights in work, age of marriage and agency in marriage, violence against girls and juvenile justice.

In Chapter 2, while providing situational analysis on the subject, the author highlights major indicators for Status of Girls in India. She focuses on the most mind-boggling problems faced by adolescent girls such as decision-making in the day-to-day life, self- dependence and career. Dictatorial atmosphere in the family, educational institutions and in the community life, make adolescents feel left out of the decision-making processes affecting their lives.

Both, in private and in the public spheres, we need to give more space for development to the adolescent girls.

The author has given detailed profile of health status of adolescent girls. For large majority of Indian girls, the cumulative effect of poverty, under nourishment and neglect is reflected by their poor body size/ growth and narrow pelvis as they grow into adolescence, making child bearing a risk. Though child marriages are reducing, still nearly one fourth of girls are married before they complete 18 years. Ramifications of Early Marriage for the Girl are devastating. During last decade, increasing number of girls have been protesting against this evil custom by running away from home, approaching government officers and local police, teachers, writing essays and poems. One such poem expresses grim reality faced by thousands of adolescent girls in India.

Chapter 3 On Law & Policy Framework shows the apathy of government towards adolescent girls. Even in the Youth Reports churned out by the Ministry of Youth Affairs hardly any serious consideration is given to rights of girls as citizens. Most of the schemes and programmes for girls are guided by stereotypical understanding girls’ role as future wives and home-makers. The author has meticulously described existing provision for girls in the law and critically examined Minimum Legal Age as Defined by National Legislation in India Education (including right to free and compulsory education for ages 6-14, special provisions for girls), Employment (such as labour laws regulating conditions at work, abolition of bonded labour, prohibition / regulation of child labour, maternity benefits, equal pay for equal work, minimum wages), Health, food, nutrition, water & sanitation (health laws including on mental health, disability, medical termination of pregnancy, prohibition of sex-selective abortions, food security etc.), Marriage (including religion-based matrimonial laws addressing issues of age of marriage, rights during marriage and upon its termination, law prohibiting child marriage), Violence (criminal laws, law related to juvenile justice, specific laws on SC/ST atrocities, trafficking, witch hunting, child sexual violence etc.), Land, housing, property rights, environment (such as laws related to right to residence in matrimonial home, rent, tenancy, ownership of land, forest rights). This chapter reflects an encyclopaedic legal knowledge of the author on rights of adolescent girls.

Adolescent girls struggle for formal and vocational education is discussed in Chapter 4 titled “Education as a Tool for Empowerment”. The most challenging issue is drop out of adolescent girls from school due to inability to pass in mathematics, science and English. There is an urgent need for bridge courses, remedial education, distance and IT enabled courses, vocational training to be made available to girls from marginalized sections. Industrial Training Institutes run by GoI have strong gender-bias and give training to girls only for beautician, secretarial practice, stenography, COPA and tailoring, while boys get training for hundreds of courses.

Chapter 5 Girls at Work focuses on both paid and unpaid work of adolescent girls. In the intra-household distribution of labour, girls shoulder the major burden of economic, procreative and family responsibilities. NSSO, 1991 revealed that nearly 10 % of girls were never enrolled in schools due to paid and unpaid work they had to do in homes, fields, factories, plantations and in the informal sector. [2] Sexual abuse at the work place is a hidden burden that a girl worker endures. The child labour policies, however, do not spell out anything specific to girl child workers. There is no implementation of prohibition of girls working in hazardous occupations as per Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. About 6% of the boys and girls in rural areas and about 3% males and 2% girls in age group 5-14 in urban areas were found to be working during 1993-94. [3]

Transnational Corporations and Multinational Corporations have long realised that the best way to reduce the wage bill and to enhance profits is to move parts of the production process to informal/unorganised sector of poorer countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, etc. The cheap labour of Asian adolescent girls and young women is regarded as the most lucrative way to enhance profits. Women in developing countries are a ‘flexible’ labour force. Their cheaper labour forms the basis for the induction of women into export industries such as electronics, garments, sports goods, food processing, toys, agro-industries, etc. They are forced to work uncomplainingly at any allotted task, however dull, laborious, physically harmful or badly paid it may be. A large number of poor adolescent girls looking for work within the narrow confines of a socially imposed, inequitable demand for labour have become ideal workers in the international division of labour. Globalisation is riding on the back of millions of poor girls and women and child workers in the margins of the economy.

The shift from a stable/organised labour force to a flexible workforce has meant hiring women part-time, and the substitution of better-paid male labour by cheap female labour. The new economic policies provide State support to corporate houses that are closing down their big city units and using ancillaries that employ women and girls on a piece-rate basis. Home-based work by women and girls gets legitimised in the context of increasing insecurity in the community due to a growth in crime, riots, displacement and relocation. Sub-contracting, home-based production, the family labour system, all have become the norm. This is being called an increase in ‘efficiency’ and ‘productivity’. The casual employment of urban working class girls and women in the manufacturing industry has forced thousands of women to eke out subsistence through parallel petty trading activities (known as ‘informal’ sector occupations). Adolescent working class girls are multi-tasking.

Chapter 6 provides the health profile of adolescent girls. The chapter examines factors that contribute to a healthy life. Health challenges concerning a girl child cover mortality, morbidity, nutritional status and reproductive health and linked to these are environmental degradations, violence and occupational hazards, all of which have implications for her health status. It is intricately related to the socio-economic status of the households to which she belongs. Due to the competing demands on their time and energy as well as their socialization, girls tend to neglect their health. The lesser access to food coupled with neglect invariably leads to a poor nutritional status and a state of ill health for most of the girls. Changing determinants in the survival struggles of girls have created an alarming situation that prevents India to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

Chapter 7 on Age of Marriage and Agency in Marriage is historiographically illuminating. It delineates volatile journey of Indian Women from late 19^th century when Age of Consent debate had polarized public opinion between liberal humanists and cultural revivalists in the context of death of 11 year old Phulmani on the first night of her marriage due to forced intercourse in 1890 in Calcutta Presidency and Rakmabai case in Bombay Presidency.

In 21^st century also many girl already in poor health, marry between the ages of 14 - 16. They bear children while still young and malnourished themselves. An upswing of female deaths in the age group 15-19 years indicates the high mortality rate of teenage mothers. Nearly 45 % of Indian girls are married off before they attain majority. Child marriages and teenage pregnancy with and outside marriage are the major problems faced by girls in the developing world.

Chapter 8 on violence against girls in their private and public lives shows that adolescent girls account for more than their share of abortion related complications and deaths. Unwed pregnant girls (victims of rape, incest or seduction), turn to abortion, whether or not it is legal. Faced with unintended pregnancy, they take desperate measure resulting into health risks of unsafe abortions such as sepsis caused by unsanitary instruments or incomplete abortion, haemorrhage, injuries to genital organs such as cervical laceration and uterine perforation and toxic reactions to chemicals or drugs used to induce abortion. Domestic violence in parental and matrimonial home, battering, physical tears, death due to bleeding, rape, sexual harassment at home, workplace and public places, eve teasing, kidnapping and abduction, prostitution, sexual assault, molestation, rape, child sexual abuse, nuisance calls cause psychological disturbances among girls and women and throw major health burden on girls. The trauma of sexual violence sparks off tension and anxiety at a dangerous level. Women counselors working with girls have conveyed that their mental health problems are manifested in anxiety, fear, avoidance, guilt, loss of efficiency, lack of coordination, depression, sexual dysfunction, substance abuse, relieving the traumatic incidents through memory, suicidal attempts, eating disorders, disturbed sleep patterns, fear of encountering such situation once again. It is found that girls who undergo extreme sexual violence experience a loss of self and self-esteem following the shock inflicted on them.

Incidents of child rape and abandonment have increased. Major problem in cases of crimes against girls is that of underreporting. Over and above crimes against girl child punishable under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), there are also special and local laws to prevent child labour, child marriage and immoral traffic prevention. Pre Natal Diagnostic Technique (PNDT) Act 1994 has not been able to reduce sex-selective abortion of female foetuses.

Chapter 9 Engaging With The Juvenile Justice System brings out operation of The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 that covers functioning of 5 types of institutions dealing with adolescents: Observation homes, Children’s Homes, Special Homes, Shelter Homes and After care organizations. Bureaucratic lethargy, political vested interests, sexual exploitation of girls, embezzlement of funds earmarked for food, education, vocational training, and lack of transparency have eroded credibility of the Act. NGOs and social work institutions are the only conscience keepers.

Chapter 10 on State responsibility locates framework of state responsibility under international human rights law. National Commission for Children has a special mandate for girls. The very first sentence in the chapter aptly projects needs and aspirations of adolescent girls, ‘Adolescent girls are not merely “claimants” or “beneficiaries” of pre-defined rights; they play an important role in defining the contents of rights.’

Chapter 11 on “Claiming Ownership of the Future: Some Adolescent Girls’ Visions” brings out voices of girls thro’ survey research based on a representative sample of 112 adolescent girls from underprivileged communities in Mumbai conducted by Vacha team led by Nischint Hora, Medhavini Namjoshi, Yagna Parma and Amrita De. The study was conducted in September - October 2012. The main highlights of the study speak volumes about agency of adolescent girls who are convinced about the importance of education for empowerment; perceive child / early marriages as a major impediment to their growth; aspire to be economically independent in their future life; are extremely concerned about personal safety and security; deplore honour crimes and assert the right of girls to choose their life partners; are conscious of societal discrimination and injustice against girls, and wish to see it eradicated; do not give adequate importance to aspects of health, food and nutrition; feel positive about government schemes, but also emphasize the need for increased focus on education and personal safety of girls; reiterate the need for proper implementation of laws; cherish spending time with friends, going out, playing and studying; wish to focus on personality development and improving life skills, such as acquiring self-confidence and skills in independent decision-making; and believe that self-assertion of rights is a key to their empowerment.

Rapid changes in the socio-economic and cultural reality, parental expectations, values and norms, rising levels of competition and pressure during examination time and a breakdown of traditional family structures are factors that accelerate this alarming trend. Examination related anxiety results into sharp rise in girls hurting themselves deliberately, leaving homes or killing themselves. Fear of failure is a root cause of all qualms. Parents who want their children to develop high self-esteem should make a point of treating them with respect and dignity. Concept of fiscal hygiene is important for girls to understand the value of clean money earned through hard work. Today’s adolescent girls are at the crossroads. But every crossroad leads to new roads. Information revolution has made adolescent girls more aware and precocious. They have to enhance their knowledge base. Broadening one’s personal horizons is a sure way of tackling the crisis within oneself. Today’s girls find the values instilled in them since their childhood, hollow in real life. Romance is found utilitarian and consumerist. The economic security is bleak, emotional security is becoming a victim of uncertain times. Globalisation has led to the emergence of apparently homogeneous life-styles, necessities and comforts through media-images, whereas the reality of life is pathetically at variance with resources required to maintain such a life. This has further deepened the crisis of the adolescent girls.

Let the Girls Bloom

Adolescent girls are surpassing earlier milestones in the area of education, vocation, sports and cultural activities by displaying tremendous grit and hard work. They are setting new benchmarks in their success stories in spite of socio-economic and cultural hurdles. Now the state and civil society need to remove the institutional and cultural constraints so that the adolescent girls can realise their dreams. Providing good and healthy role models for adolescent girls is very important.

This book is a valuable contribution in terms of its analytical rigour, right based perspective and crucial strategic thinking for empowerment of adolescent girls. This book is a must-read for educationists, thinking youth, policy makers and practitioners dealing with problems and challenges of girls and youth in general. The book can be purchased from VACHA, 5 Bhavna, S.V. Road, Vile Parle (W), Mumbai-400056.

Vibhuti Patel